Q:
What were some of the factors leading to your writing Guilty Hearts?

A:
There are several reasons. Writing Bank Notes was my opportunity to tell our
story—the story of Keith Giammanco’s fall from middle-class father into crime,
our prison experiences, and our love story.

It’s
not easy putting your personal life out there for the world to see, but we
believed it was important to use Keith’s compelling high-profile case to bring
awareness to the need for reform in the criminal justice system.

As
soon as Keith and I became a couple, I faced the scorn and stigma of being in a
prison relationship. I lost friends, but even more painful, I lost family
members. My brother disowned me. My cousins treated me as though suddenly I was
mentally ill. Word got back to me that even out-of-state family members were
hearing I was manipulated by an inmate. Family daggers in the back are the
worst.

Once
Bank Notes came out and our story became public, I fielded prying, skeptical
questions from radio hosts and customers at book signings. At my teaching job,
once my “secret” was out, I was treated as a pariah. Whom I love became a
reason to ostracize me. While it stung, I wasn’t going to let it stop me. Keith
and I love each other, and thankfully we don’t let others dictate our
decisions.

I
began thinking of the millions of families out there who don’t get to tell
their stories, yet live under the same stigma I face. I knew I wasn’t alone in
my isolation. Families across the country are forced to wear a cloak of shame
because someone they love made a mistake.

Not
everyone has the ability or desire to put themselves in the glaring light of
public scrutiny. Most inmate families are battling enough social and financial
issues. I wanted to give couples and families the ability to tell their stories
in safety. I’d face the public scrutiny. They could tell me their stories, let
their own humanity show, without being attacked in a public way.

I
also wanted society to understand why inmate relationships are important and
why it’s more dangerous for our communities when inmates are abandoned.

Society
wants to kill connections to inmates, the monsters people conjure in their
minds who deserve to be locked up with the key thrown away. The problem is,
most inmates aren’t monsters. They were just like the rest of us until they
became desperate, scared, developed drug or drinking problems, or were raised
in the wrong zip code.

Another
problem with society’s urge to dissolve family and relationship ties is that
over 95 percent of all inmates aren’t locked up with the key thrown away. They
re-enter our communities. It’s not good for any of us if they have no one on
the outside.

If
the draw of returning to prison is stronger than ties back home, former inmates
will find a way to go back to the prison society that accepts them. They return
to prison by committing crimes, and those crimes are against people in our
communities. No one is safer by breaking families apart.

Q:
How did you meet the families you profile in the book, and what do they think
of it?

A:
Through my criminal justice reform efforts, I had already made friends with
women who have compelling stories to tell. They were my first sources.

I
wanted to have a broad range of experiences profiled in Guilty Hearts, however,
so I decided to branch out to people I hadn’t known personally. I posted in
prison wife groups on Facebook that I was looking for women willing to share
their experiences. My best friend from college is active in adoptee groups, and
she spread the word in her circle, too.

With
each of the families, I asked for input from wives, mothers, and the inmates. I
wanted information on how they met, how they maintain their relationships, and
what reactions they have faced because of their relationships.

The
response I have gotten back so far from contributors has been amazing. Here are
some quotes from a mother and two of the wives featured in GH:

“Powerful
and exciting because I’m picking up ideas for coping.” –Victoria

“I
really enjoyed reading this book. The stories of what these families go through
are heartbreaking. It is so frustrating knowing how broken our justice system
really is…I know firsthand just how incredibly life can change in a heartbeat
and turn all your hopes and dreams into a nightmare. You will truly feel for
all these couples as you read about how love can get you through the worst of
times and conquer all…Thank you, Caroline, for writing this book.” –Kristen

Knowing
I have the support and praise of the women who shared their stories means the
world to me. I wanted them to be pleased with how their stories were presented
to the world.

Q:
How did you choose the book's title, and what does it signify for you?

A:
I chose the title because the women and families who love inmates are expected
to carry the same guilt as the inmates. We are supposed to be ashamed of whom
we love, as though we are defective if we love someone who broke the law. Mere
association with a criminal casts us in a negative light.

Guilty
Hearts is a chance for women and the inmates they love to show relationships can
exist and continue even when someone makes a mistake.

Q:
What is happening now with Keith Giammanco's case?

A:
His federal appeal is still under review. It’s been two years, and we are in
the dark so far. We are hoping and praying for a positive result.

In
Bank Notes I wrote about my efforts to reform 85 percent mandatory minimums in
the state of Missouri through the legislature. It’s a complicated issue, and
politicians have knee-jerk reactions to crime just like everyone else in the
world, but we were making progress.

We
had high hopes at the time the book went to print. In its first trip through
the legislature, the bill, which applied to first time offenders, made it all
the way to debate on the floor of the Missouri House of Representatives. Representative
Don Phillips sponsored that bill.

At
the end of that session a different representative, Galen Higdon,
enthusiastically called me, adamant that he could push the bill all the way
through the next year.

He
not only didn’t deliver, he didn’t even propose a decent bill. The one Galen
Higdon concocted was so vague that it didn’t even apply to 85 percent mandatory
minimums or first-time offenders. “Trust me” was a phrase I heard from him.
I’ve never had much confidence in a man who has to tell me to trust him.

I
went through two back-to-back reconstructive foot surgeries that fall and
winter and didn’t have much choice but to leave it to the representative who
had it handled. He didn’t. Nor did he produce a viable bill the next year. My
trust has run out with him.

However,
I have not given up on bringing reform to draconian laws established under the
Clinton administration (which even they now say were a mistake that have led to
mass incarceration and buckling expenses to the states who have continued the
failed practice).

At
one book signing in St. Louis, I met a member of the state jury that convicted
Keith. As we suspected, the jurors had no idea what they were actually
sentencing Keith to in September 2010.

“He’s
home now, right?” the gentleman asked me.

“No,
the jury convicted him of first degree robbery. That has a mandatory minimum
sentence of 85 percent. He has to serve 17 years before he’s eligible for
parole.”

“I
thought he’d be home when his federal sentence ended,” he said with a shocked
expression.

He
also wasn’t aware that the judge went against the jury’s recommendation of 15
years and instead sent Keith to prison for 20 years.

So,
unfortunately for now, Keith remains in prison with no chance for parole for
another eight and a half years.

Q:
What are you working on now?

A:
I am halfway through writing Inside the Death Fences. It’s my story of how I
began working at a maximum security prison, my experiences before I met Keith,
and the events that happened afterwards.

Last
November, news broke of over $7 million paid out by the state in harassment and
retaliation lawsuits against the Missouri Department of Corrections. Before
then, the system operated in the shadows, under the guise of being “the good
guys.” A few of us had spoken up against the system, but overall people turned
a blind eye.

When
millions of dollars were at stake, they suddenly took interest. The Missouri
House of Representatives created a subcommittee investigating the corruption
within the DOC. As a result, the department now has a new director and
assistant director. Many of us hope the investigation doesn’t end there.

I’ve
gotten to know the members of the subcommittee, and I have gotten to know
current and former employees who are also now willing to speak up against the
fear and retaliation within prison system. The full details will be included in
my new book.

Q:
Anything else we should know?

A:
The Missouri Department of Corrections banned Bank Notes from entering the
prisons after I gave a signed copy in person to then-DOC director George
Lombardi.

For
years I’d heard, “The people in Jefferson City don’t have any idea what goes on
at the prison level.” I took that buffer zone away by making sure the head
honcho had a copy in his hands. When he had the opportunity to turn his ship
around, he instead banned my book.

Keith
and I are known within the prison system. When he was transferred to the
Southeast Correctional Center in Charleston, Missouri, we were denied visiting
rights, our marriage request was denied, and they interfered with our mail. I
had to seek the help of a legislator. We are seen as a threat by the system.
Good.

When
Keith’s level dropped in January of this year and he was moved to Western
Missouri Correctional Center (a medium-level prison), our recognition traveled
with him. On his second day there, when mail was called, he went to get his ID
(a requirement for getting mail). The guard said, “You don’t need your ID. I
know who you are.” On his second day at the prison.

We
continue to work to make the system more efficient and more effective. It is,
after all, called the “Corrections” Department. Rehabilitation should be the
goal.

About Me

Author, THE PRESIDENT AND ME: GEORGE WASHINGTON AND THE MAGIC HAT, new children's book (Schiffer, 2016). Co-author, with Marvin Kalb, of HAUNTING LEGACY: VIETNAM AND THE AMERICAN PRESIDENCY FROM FORD TO OBAMA (Brookings Institution Press, 2011).